Author: straightnewsng.com

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, said it has filed its response to Atiku Abubakar’s petition and others. Wednesday was the deadline for the INEC and APC to file their responses. It was not clear, at press time, if the APC had complied as National Publicity Secretary of the party, Malam Lanre Issa-Onilu did not pick his calls. “For other petitions like those of the HDP, PDM and others, we filed our responses last week. As for the Atiki/PDP petition, we filed our response Wednesday,” said Mr. Festus Okoye, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee of…

Chairman of National Assembly and state House of Assembly election tribunal, Justice Abdulkadir Suleiman, Thursday, warned litigants that the tribunal will entertain unnecessary delay Inaugurating the tribunal in Kaduna, Justice Suleiman said “For the avoidance of doubt, the Tribunal will not entertain unnecessary delay as the petitions will be treated with utmost urgency and dispatch. “Lawyers appearing for parties are further reminded to avoid the request for unnecessary adjournment,” he added. Suleiman further warned the litigants to avoid “behind the door communication” with members of the tribunal and their support staff,” saying “all communications must be open.” He said members…

No fewer than 55 depots across the country are fully stocked with Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC stated Thursday. Group Managing Director of the corporation, Mr. Maikanti Baru, spoke during the NNPC Special Day at the 30th Enugu International Trade Fair. According to Baru, 23 depots in Lagos, seven in Port Harcourt, 11 in Warri, six in Calabar and eight in Kaduna, were stocked with petrol. He restated its commitment to sustain the present seamless supply and distribution of petroleum products across the country. Baru, who was represented by the Chief Operating Officer, Refineries and…

Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, has described fuel subsidy which the World Bank said cost Nigeria N731 billion in 2018, as the biggest fiscal burden currently staring nation’s economy in the face. LCCI, which response was based on the World Bank report, released on Monday in Abuja focused on key developments in Nigeria’s economy in 2018, added among other things that the Excess Crude Account, ECA, was virtually depleted during the period. In November 2018, the bank had also stated in another report entitled: ‘Nigeria Bi-annual Economic Update for Fall 2018,’ that petrol subsidy deductions for 2017 full…

Ahead of the inauguration of the 9th Senate and the coming on board of new Presiding officers, Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi (APC, Niger North), Wednesday, predicted that the Senate Leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan (APC, Yobe) will have 73 Senators across party lines to vote for him. Addressing journalists Wednesday, in Abuja, Senator Abdullahi who is the spokesman of the Ahmad Lawan for Senate President, said “Let me say very clearly that the nature of parliament is such that you cannot shut anybody out. It is not possible. I want Nigerians who to…

House of Representatives Wednesday, approved N1.64 trillion as benchmark for loan to fund the 2019 budget of the Federal Government. It will be recalled that the Federal Government had proposed N1.86 trillion in the 2019-2021 Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF and Fiscal Strategy Paper for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2019 submitted to the National Assembly last year. The amount approved was recommended by Committees on Finance, Appropriations, Aids, Loans and Debt Management, Legislative Budget and Research and National Planning and Economic Development which sat on the MTEF and FSP documents. Considering the report of the committees in the…

For implementation to commence in earnest, Organised Labour and Civil society organisations have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to assent the N30,000 Minimum Wage Bill transmitted by the National Assembly to him over two weeks ago. Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, NECA, Trade Union Side, TUS, of the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council, JNPSNC, United Labour Congress of Nigeria, ULC, and umbrella body for pro-labour civil society groups in the country; Joint Action Front, JAF, urged President Buhari to quicken action on the bill by signing it. Speaking, Timothy Olawale, Director General of NECA, said “We have been made to…

Following the incessant high cases of electoral offences in Nigeria, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has proposed a fine of N500,000 or three years imprisonment or both for persons convicted of vote buying and selling. The commission said that the adoption of the measure would in a greater way curb the menace. Chairman of the Commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu stated this at the 9th Forum of the Anti-Corruption Situation Room, organised by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda, HEDA, held in Abuja, Wednesday. Represented at the event by INEC National Commissioner and chairman, Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye,…

The Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, Wednesday, stated that it had concluded arrangements to carry out a comprehensive audit of all the Orphanage homes operating in the nation’s capital. The audit, according to the FCTA, will be carried out to ascertain the number of such homes operating in the territory and to know the level of compliance in accordance with the Child Rights Act. Reacting to allegations that the authorities of the FCT administration were out to forcefully outlaw the operation of orphanage homes in the nation’s capital, Tpl. Umar Shuaibu, Coordinator of Abuja Metropolitan Management Council, AMMC, maintained that…

Of the 17 bills President Muhammadu Buhari declined to assent, the Senate, Wednesday, resolved to override his veto on two bills out of others passed and forwarded to him. Specifically, the Senate vowed to override President’s veto on the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999(Fourth Alteration, No.28)Bill, 2018 and the Industrial Development(Income Tax Relief) Amendment Bill, 2018. The upper chamber also resolved to reconsider 11 out of the 17 bills the President declined assent, just as the lawmakers agreed to withdraw four out of the 17 rejected bills, apparently because of the observation raised by the president. Resolutions…